SUPPORT

Newsletter

DIPOL Weekly Review - TV and SAT TV, CCTV, WLAN

No. 38/2013 (Nov. 18, 2013)

When you sleep, your car will drive itself and recharge the battery. During the ITS World Congress Tokyo 2013 (ITS stands for Intelligent Transport Systems) which took place between October 14 and 18, Denso Corporation of Japan, known for its wide range of automotive components, announced the implementation of technology that would allow for automatic self-charging of electric cars in power distribution units.

With a smartphone and GPS system, the cars can be programmed to drive themselves to nearby charging points to recharge the energy used during the day, and return on their own to their parking spots. Of course, the service field for each car will be limited to the vicinity of its parking space, usually to the parking lot area.

The idea seems attractive but is extremely difficult to implement. However, a number of tests and a successful presentation can suggest that somewhere in the Far East, where the popularity of electric vehicles is relatively large, people may soon see "phantom" cars moving without drivers.

Batteries in electric cars usually require several to twelve hours for full recharge. Due to the limited charging space available, it may even take more time (waiting for turn). The technology developed by the Japanese company Denso could solve this problem, allowing for self-recharging of the vehicle's battery at any time of day or night.

With a smartphone, the user will be able to determine the time when the car should start charging. If the time comes, the vehicle guided by GPS system determines the appropriate route and drives itself to the charging spot. The achievable positioning accuracy of at least 10 cm is sufficient for non-contact charging method. To avoid collisions with obstacles and other vehicles, the cars have to be equipped with laser radars; built-in video cameras will steer the cars between white lines on the ground.

This solution can be especially convenient for owners of hotel car fleets, car rentals etc. It will allow the owners to effectively "refuel" the cars without having to waste time for these operations. Will the market accept this innovative idea? - Who knows, Denso has not even mentioned the estimated costs of implementation of the systems yet.

Optical fibers in a multi-story building. The task for an installation company was to prepare fiber optic network in a residential building. Each apartment had to have access to two optical fibers. The starting point of the whole system was to be located in a dedicated room in the basement.

The contractor decided to install fiber optic system based on easy access cables. The cables with 12, 24, 36 or 48 fibers have loose tubes that allow for cutting out windows, usually on each floor of a building, and pull out any needed number of individual fibers.

The architecture of the fiber optic system in the multi-family building

In this case, the installer based the system on vertical organization of the distribution cables, of course it is possible to use horizontal organization when more appropriate in a specific building. On the top floor there is a cable reserve protected from slipping off, kept on the ULTIMODE-X01-A L5504 spare cable storage rack. The floor branches are protected by the breakout units L5351. The optical fibers run between the units and apartments are protected by drop/distribution tubes VC-TUB L7211. The optical branches are terminated with TB-02W L53002 boxes with L4322 adapters. The technical room has been equipped with a rack cabinet housing fiber optic box ULTIMODE MT-672 L5272.

The system is economical, the cabling does not take up much space, and the transmission medium - optical fibers - allow for high data transfers with reserves sufficient for many decades.

Compact satellite dishes for small multiswitch systems. For many years satellite TV has been one of the main sources of television programming. The size and quality of the satellite dish is very important for an undisturbed reception of satellite broadcasts. For consumer applications, the use of 80 cm dishes is fully sufficient in most European countries, while even small multiswitch systems should be based on high quality 100 cm dishes. Simply, this type of SMATV systems requires higher signal levels than individual installations.

Both for individual satellite reception and small shared antenna systems based on multiswitch systems, we recommend dishes from Danish TRIAX company. Among seemingly similar products they have a number of distinguishing features:

Video transmission via twisted pair cable. Transmission of video signals from cameras via coaxial cables or twisted pair cables and passive devices can be performed over distances up to 400 meters. This limitation is due to the amplitude and phase distortions of the transmitted signals, which increase with the length of the cables.

Twisted pair cable (e.g. the most popular UTP) consists of four pairs of twisted copper wires with a diameter of 0.5 mm. The twisted pairs in natural way eliminate the influence of external interferences (they are practically identical in both wires and cancel at the differential input of the receiver). This feature, combined with four pairs and lower cost of UTP cables in comparison with coaxial cables, is the reason that they are often used for longer transmission lines in CCTV systems.

The use of twisted pair cables for video transmission in analog CCTV systems is connected with the application of passive transformers (baluns) that match the impedance of twisted pair (100 ohm, balanced) to the impedance of the unbalanced outputs of cameras and inputs of DVRs (75 ohm). Below we present the most popular devices used for this purpose in single, quadruple, and octuple transmission lines.

IP CCTV systems - recording of surveillance data when the LAN fails. IP CCTV systems require the highest possible degree of protection of the surveillance data. Professional monitoring systems where the priority is their reliability ensure variety of security features that are designed to provide trouble-free operation, regardless of the circumstances. In the event of an NVR failure, the data can be recorded on a redundant device. In the case of LAN breakdown, the material can be recorded on microSD cards installed directly in IP cameras. They record the video streams that cannot reach the NVR because of the network failure.

IP CCTV system with two methods of data archiving

The new series of low-cost NVRs, Hikvision DS-7600NI-SE K2204 and K2208, plus GOODRAM memory cards M90316, M90332, M90364 enable the users to cut the costs of IP CCTV systems while providing distributed backup of the surveillance data in each camera. All Sunell IP cameras can locally record the data on the SD cards. The Hikvision NVRs can notify the system operator about LAN failure e.g. by a sound alarm.

Various ways of accessing the Internet with TP-LINK devices - part 2. In the previous issue of the Newsletter we presented direct connection to telephone line and link sharing within the home connected to the Internet through ADSL line. The second and the third most popular methods of access to the global network are DOCSIS and Ethernet. The former is used by cable TV operators, and the latter by local or municipal ISPs.

In both cases, the users have Ethernet interface (in the case of cable TV networks the conversion is made by the modem supplied by the service provider). The device which must be purchased in order to provide the network access to multiple computers in the home is a router with WAN port (RJ-45).

The architecture of the network with Internet access via Ethernet line or CATV modem

The router (1) is responsible for distribution of the connection to multiple computers, via wired or wireless means.

List of equipment that can be used in such installation:

Device no. 1 - the device with access to the Internet, responsible for its distribution to multiple computers within the local network:

DVB-T television and the Internet via one UTP cable. Low-voltage systems in office buildings often do not include TV antenna cables, but are usually fitted with structural cabling based on UTP cables. When some users want to connect televisions to watch DVB-T broadcasts, the lack of an RF distribution system may be a major obstacle (in many locations TV signals cannot be properly received using indoor antennas)... more

Transmission of DVB-T and Ethernet signals over a single UTP cable with the use of R94200 baluns

A problem with GSM coverage? There are many locations where the range of a cellular network allows for use of mobile phones out of buildings, but is insufficient for indoor operation. This is due to signal attenuation through walls, windows and floors (in basements). Such locations include some remote places, e.g. recreational areas (long distances to base stations), but more often rooms in old buildings with thick walls or in basements and cellars (e.g. pubs, coffee shops), underground parking lots, metal and concrete shopping malls, hotels etc. The solution to this problem is to install a suitable GSM or 3G repeater... more

Switches in optical systems. When creating a fiber-optic network and the interface between copper and optical installation, it is important to choose appropriate devices. In order to link two LANs based on copper UTP cables, the installer should consider one of the two basic solutions: using a pair of media converters, or two switches equipped with SFP modules. It is also possible to combine both types of the devices, i.e. an Ethernet media converter on one side and a switch with SFP module on the other. An example of a system with a fiber optic link connecting two subnetworks is shown in the diagram below... more